The Hacker Chronicles: Book 1
by BlackRoseBooks
Summary: First Book in the Hacker Chronicles –Eliot Spencer/OC (Roxanne Davies – Emmy Rossum). Hardison wasn't hired by Dubenich, Roxy Davies was instead. What will be different in the show when a sassy woman is involved? What different relationships will develop? Goes through all the episodes from season 1 (In-progress)
1. The Nigerian Job

**Disclaimer: I do not own Leverage.**

 **The Nigerian Job**

Nathan Ford, Ex-Insurance investigator, sat at a hotel bar in Chicago. He was waiting for the bar tender to return with his next drink.

"I checked" the bartender announced as he approached, placing a glass of cola in front of Nate "Airport shuttle's in 15 minutes" before he turned and walked away, not noticing the man slip a small bottle of whiskey from the inside pocket on his coat and topping off the glass of cola with it.

A short man with curly hair and a haggard, desperate expression on his face entered the hotel. He looked around before he spotted Nate with his drink at the bar. He hurried over to him and put his bag on top of the bar as he settled on to the stool next to him.

Nate looked to the side startled by the man's rather abrupt appearance but before he could say or do anything to get rid of him, the man started to speak rapidly.

"I'm sorry Mr. Ford, sorry, I know who you are I've, uh, excuse me. I'm Victor Dubenich" the man finally introduced "I've read all about you. I know for example that-that when you found that stolen Monet painting in Florence you probably saved your Insurance Company what 20-25 million dollars. Then there was that identity theft thing and you saved your insurance company I don't even know how many millions of dollars but I just know that when you needed them… What happened to your family is the kind of thing..."?

Nate slammed his glass down on the bar officially annoyed with the man and not even bothering to try and hide it "You know that part of the conversation where I punch you in the neck nine or ten times? We're coming up on that pretty quick"

Dubenich holds up his hand in a defensive gesture "I just want to offer you a job"

"What do you got?" Nate sneered; eyes glazed showing just how much he had had to drink.

"Do you know anything about airplane design?" Dubenich asked leadingly.

Nate turned back to his drink already bored "I could give it a shot, you know, you give me a pencil and one of those little rulers"

Dubenich cut him off by explaining quickly "Somebody stole my airplane designs"

"Oh, I see and you'd like me to find them right?" Nate assumed with a roll of his eyes before he downed the rest of his drink.

"No. I know where they are. I want you to steal them back" Dubenich replied leaning toward the man intensely making him look at him full of surprise.

~*0*~

Nate Ford was waiting on a dark street in down town Chicago for the three other people that he was supposed to be meeting to join him. Across from him was a tall office building which was the home of the head offices for Pierson Aviation.

First to approach was a man; he stood at about 5'9 with shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes, dressed completely in black. Combat pants, a military jacket, military boots, a beanie and fingerless gloves, carrying a small duffel bag. He was Eliot Spencer, hitter and retrieval specialist.

He was followed a couple of seconds later by a 5'6 thin blonde woman who had pale blue eyes and was wearing black skinny jeans, with a long sleeved dark blue shirt with black converse carting a small drawstring bag. She was Parker, a world renowned thief.

Last to arrive was a tall brunette woman; she stood at 5'8 with chocolate brown eyes. She was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans; a dark purple and black striped long sleeved top, covered with a leather biker jacket, a beanie, and some black heeled ankle boots, she was carrying a small leather back pack. She was Roxanne "Roxy" Davies, well known hacker and thief.

They all exchanged a look, knowing each other by their reputation and the research they had done for this job before hand. The three new arrivals turned and headed for the roof of Pierson's building.

Meanwhile Nate, turned and walked into the under construction offices that where across from the building, giving him a direct view of everything so he could set up surveillance.

~*0*~

Nate exited the elevator about half way up the building, to find himself in a wide, open plan room which was covered in hanging plastic wrap; he looked around briefly before heading toward the window wall facing that faced the building opposite.

He folded out a collapsible table, setting it down he put a laptop on it twisting the screen to an angle so he could see it easily whilst also being able to look out the window and the at the perpendicular wall with ease.

Once done he turned to look out the window over to the building across the street were the others had made it to the roof and where preparing.

~*0*~

Nate and Dubenich continued their discussion at a table away from the bar "You're sure Pierson stole your designs?" Nate asked as Dubenich put a folder on the table he had pulled out from his brief case.

"Look, my engineer goes missing, he disappears with all my files and then one week later Pierson announces an identical project. Come on" Dubenich shrugged thinking the situation pretty much spoke for itself.

"I don't know. Stealing them back, it seems like a stupid risk, there are other ways…" Nate started before being interrupted by Dubenich.

"Listen. Listen to me. At the end of this month I have a shareholder's meeting Mr. Ford. I've spent, already, five years, 100 million dollars on RD. If I go to that meeting and have nothing to show for it. Then. I. Am. Dead." Dubenich explained with desperation, leaning forward looking very intense and wringing his hands in worry.

Dubenich opened the folder and passed it across the table toward Nate saying "I'm serious. Look, look at the people I've already hired. Do you recognize any of these names?"

Nate took the papers out of the file and started flicking through them "Uh, yeah, I've chased all of them at one time or anoth- Parker? You have Parker?" Nate interrupted himself, frowning at Dubenich like he was having serious doubts about the man's mental state.

"Is there somebody better?" Dubenich asked with concern.

"No, but Parker is insane" Nate explained bluntly.

"Which is why I need you" Dubenich said gesturing to Nate.

Nate scoffed a laugh saying "No. I'm not a thief" before closing the file and sliding it back across the table to the other man.

"Thieves I got. What I need is one honest man to watch them" Dubenich finished pointing at the file.

~*0*~

Nate set up his projector directed at the perpendicular wall to the window, he focused the lens to show 3D blueprints for the building opposite. It scales down before focusing on a particular floor about half way down the building.

~*0*~

"Are you in?" Dubenich asked as Nate rubbed his chin as he thought about the situation.

"It's not going to work" Nate had to point out with a shake of his head "these people you hired they all have the same rep. They work alone, they always work alone, there are no exceptions and there's no way they're going to work for you"

"No, they will, they will" Dubenich jumped in to reassure "For $300,000 each, they will, and for you, for running it, it's double that. And it's off the books, completely off the books. Look at me, I'm desperate here. And that's just the salary, there is a bonus. Pierson is insured by I.Y.S., your old bosses. It's a 50-million-dollar intellectual property rights policy" Dubenich said using his last incentive to try and convince the man "Mr. Ford, how badly do you want to screw the insurance company that let your son die?"

~*0*~

Nate pulled out a headset and microphone from his bag and set it up "Okay, clear comms" he said waiting for the others to respond.

~*0*~

Roxy picked up a headset and examined it skeptically "Erm... No, no offence or anything babe but I have something better. This stuff is... really... retro" she trailed off unsure if she had offended the man.

~*0*~

"No surprises now" Nate cautioned through the earpiece even though none of them could actually hear him properly yet.

~*0*~

"I've been doing this since preschool, babe, don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs" Roxy responded quickly, quite offended by the lack of faith, while remembering some of her previous jobs.

~*0*~

 _Flashback:_

 _Five years ago Roxy was sat in a hotel room in Mongolia hacking into the Uyghur Liberation Organization (ULO) internal network to steal all their money._

 _She had originally been hired by a member of the Chinese government to find who had been feeding them information from within. She had been able to the person suspiciously quickly so she had looked deeper._

 _Finding out that the information had been planted by the person who had hired her pissed her off. Making a quick decision she quickly transferred all the incriminating information on to the person's computer and left a mile-wide trail to the terrorist organization known for human trafficking._

 _She kept some of the money for herself then funneled the rest of it into Chinese orphanages and law enforcement before leaving a tip off with the Chinese police to their base of operations._

 _She quickly finished before hiding the hack as best she could, which was almost impossible to find by anyone else, closing her laptop down she set about packing all her stuff and made a quick escape back to the US where she planned to lay low for a while._

~*0*~

Pulling out a small plastic case from her bag she opened it and held up one of her own ear pieces, she showed it to the others before putting one in her ear. Offering one to Eliot she explained to them "It's a bone-conduction earpiece mic, works off the vibrations in your jaw" then as Eliot put it in his ear she whispered creepily "You can hear everything"

"You're not just a pretty face then huh?" Eliot flirted with the girl.

"Oh, you have no idea Hunny" she flirted back, throwing him off.

~*0*~

 _Flashback:_

 _Three years ago Eliot, wearing glasses and drinking from a mug of tea, entered a bar full of men in Belgrade, Serbia. Eliot came to a stop before the table of dangerous looking men and stated "I'm here to collect the merchandise"_

 _Most of the men pulled guns and aimed them directly at Eliot. Eliot took a long sip of his drink not looking concerned at all._

 _Outside, the windows flash with gunfire. Gun shots, moans and the sound of bodies hitting the floor fill the air._

 _Inside, Eliot calmly took another drink as the last man sat at the table looked around at the carnage that this man had cause without even looking ruffled. He placed a baseball card on the table and slid it across to him, making Eliot smile in satisfaction._

~*0*~

Parker dropped down between them, hanging upside down from some of the scaffolding on the roof "Can I have one?" she grinned.

~*0*~

 _Flashback:_

 _Nineteen years ago in Kansas City, a ten-year-old Parker stood in her living room watching her foster parents fight. The foster father turned to Parker, holding her stuffed bunny in a tight grip while the foster mother stood in the background, crying._

 _"You thought I wouldn't find this? You don't get bunny until you do what I say. So be a good girl or, I don't know, a better thief" her foster father slurred drunkenly before he walked out of room._

 _Her foster mother barely glanced at her before she followed the man out calling "Bill!"_

 _Later that day after her foster parents had left Parker walked outside; closing the door behind her she walked down the path. She paused at the curb she waited expectantly for something to happen. Behind her, the house exploded._

 _Parker grinned to herself happily as she hugged her stuffed bunny._

~*0*~

Roxy held the box of comms up for her to take one and watched as Parker pulled herself back up so she was right side up on the scaffolding before Roxy continued to flirt with Eliot "Geeks rule the world, Sweetie"

"You keep telling yourself that" Eliot smiled an amused smile before being interrupted by Parker.

As she adjusted her repelling gear she reminisced, almost to herself "Last time I used this rig, Paris, 2003"

Eliot shook his head at the crazy thief before turning to Roxy and asking about the ear buds "Is this thing safe?"

~*0*~

"Are you talking about the Caravaggio? You stole that?!" Nate asked of Parker completely forgetting about the job for a moment.

~*0*~

Roxy rolled her eyes at Eliot then spoke in the most condescending voice possible "Yes Dear, it's completely safe, I mean you may experience nausea, weakness in your right side, stroke, heart attacks" seeing the look being sent her way she rolled her eyes, adding in all seriousness "Relax sweetie, do you really think I would have put it in my own ear if it were dangerous"

"You're precisely why I work alone" Eliot responded before deciding to ignore her completely.

~*0*~

"Guys listen up; we're going to go on my count, not a second sooner. Parker, no freelancing" Nate said getting back on point.

~*0*~

"Hey, relax, we know what we're doing" Eliot said holding his ear piece.

"He said Parker" Roxy replied smirking "Maybe There is a reason" as she watched Parker jump off the scaffolding, head a little bit in the direction of the other side of the roof and crouching down in preparation, like a runner at the start line preparing for the signal shot.

~*0*~

"And on the count of five!" Nate ignored both of them.

~*0*~

"Aww, don't ya wanna be our friend?" Roxy smirked, as she waited for someone else to finally notice Parker had already started running.

~*0*~

"We're on the count. Five, four…" Nate announced "…three"

~*0*~

Parker took a running leap off the edge of the roof as Eliot finally noticed and informed Nate "She's gone".

~*0*~

"Sonuva …" Nate groaned, rolling his eyes, before he grabbed his binoculars and watched as she fell down the side of the building.

~*0*~

"Yeehaaaa!" Parker screeched in her enjoyment as she dropped down the building.

Eliot and Roxy ran to the edge of the roof and watched as she fell "That's twenty pounds of crazy in a five-pound bag" Eliot growled, making Roxy giggle as they stared down at the crazy thief who seemed completely at ease hung upside down on the side of the building.

~*0*~

Parker hung upside down looking into an office window. Quickly scanning the room, she spotted the black box with a small blinking green light on the wall next to the window, she quickly informed the team "Vibration detectors are on" she started to search for something in her draw string bag.

~*0*~

As he watched her through the binoculars Nate advised "No cutting Parker, use the binary"

~*0*~

Roxy and Eliot grabbed their bags full of supplies and opened the hatch to the elevator shaft of the building and started to climb down the ladder inside.

~*0*~

Parker began placing a hydrofluoric acid gel on the glass in a wide circle, large enough for her to fit through.

Parker attached an industrial suction cup to the glass and pulled it away easily, before letting it drop to the ground. She reached into the hole and set a remote carefully on the table. Easing her way in through the window, she hit the remote which released the rope from her harness.

With a cartwheel she then landed with a flip off the desk, she caught a pencil as it rolled off the desk before it could hit the ground. She smiled to herself in pride before she glanced at the detector to make sure the sensor hadn't noticed anything.

~*0*~

Parker moved into the hall carefully closing the door behind her as she headed toward a room marked "Danger: High Voltage". Upon entering the room, she saw it was full of electrical equipment.

~*0*~

Eliot and Roxy climbed down the elevator shaft before landing on top of the elevator. Alerting Parker to the fact they were in position they waited in silence for the elevator to start moving.

~*0*~

Parker attached a monitor into some of the systems and sets up a small laptop before crossing two wires sparking them together to give her access to the elevator controls.

~*0*~

Eliot reached the end of his patience, after standing on the elevator for several moments, demanding through the comms to Parker "You know Parker anytime you wanna..." but cut off with a grunt as the elevator jerked into motion, descending rapidly.

Roxy threw out her arms quickly to try and keep herself balanced with a yelp of "Whoa!" only for Eliot to grab her hand and help steady her "Thanks" she smiled at him which he returned.

~*0*~

"They are on their way" Parker told Nate as she set up her feed into the security cameras.

~*0*~

"What are you getting with security? You see security?" Nate asked quickly.

~*0*~

Parker looked at the security room on her monitor and smirked to herself "They don't see a thing"

~*0*~

The elevator jerked to a stop, they turned to open the hatch at the top and dropped down inside, waiting for Parker to open the doors.

~*0*~

Parker typed something on her laptop until she heard a loud beep "The doors open"

~*0*~

Nate nodded to himself "All right guys, show time. Here we go"

~*0*~

"Here" Eliot tossed a device to Roxy from his bag as they exited the elevator.

"Thanks" Roxy said as they approached the server room door, she plugged in the device, using the key card attachment, into the keep pad locking device at the side of the door.

~*0*~

"Okay, you got any chatter on their frequencies?" Nate asked Parker as he looked at the security feeds being transmitted to his laptop.

~*0*~

"No. Why?" Parker jerked up straight in surprise.

~*0*~

Nate pulled up the roster for the night shift, looking down the list of those on duty and said "There's eight listed on the duty roster, there's only four at the guard post"

~*0*~

"I can't even tell how many guys are in the room. How can you tell who's who?" Parker asked curious.

~*0*~

"Haircuts Parker. Count the haircuts" Nate smirked.

~*0*~

"I would have missed that" Parker muttered to herself.

~*0*~

"What?" Nate asked not having been able to make out what she said on his older model of ear piece.

~*0*~

"Nothing" She shook it off before beginning to search through the security camera feeds for the missing guards.

~*0*~

"There a problem?" Eliot asked from guarding Roxy's back raising his hand to his ear piece and concentrating.

~*0*~

"Uh, maybe. Run the cameras" Nate ordered not knowing Parker was already doing just that.

~*0*~

Roxy watched as the display on device rotated through a sequence of ten cycling digits "A ten-digit password. Not bad, not bad at all" she nodded to herself slightly impressed.

~*0*~

Parker scrolled through the camera feeds until she found the missing guards walking down one of the halls approaching the area where the guys were currently working "Got 'em. They're doing their walk-through an hour early, why the f…"

~*0*~

In the office Nate looked away from his binoculars and at the laptop to look into the security room on the camera feeds and noticed the basketball game on the bottom left screens "Because it's the playoffs. Yeah, game 5 of the playoffs. They're doing their rounds an hour early so they can watch the playoffs. All right, where are they?"

" _They're at the stairwell_ " Parker said through the earpiece sounding vaguely worried.

Nate turned to look at the location on the blueprint on the wall trying to figure out the best course of action for them to take as quickly as possible.

~*0*~

The guards walked by scanning the corridor and spotted the open doorway the team had used to get in. One of them shouted "Hey!" to alert the others who all pulled out their weapons and started hurrying down the hall checking rooms as they went "Got a security breach get them on the radio upstairs"

~*0*~

"Okay guys, here is what we gotta do. We gotta squelch 'em" Nate said as he planned it out in his head dragging his fingers along the guard route laid out on his table.

~*0*~

Parker hit a few keys on the laptop sending a high pitched sound onto the guard's comm frequency making them flinch in pain at the noise.

~*0*~

"Eliot, what I want you to do is clear the zone and use Roxy as bait" Nate said, looking at the layout and deciding that they could box them in there.

~*0*~

Eliot nodded to himself before he took off his jacket and disappeared into the shadows to wait for the guards to pass him by and an opportunity to strike.

Roxy rolled her eyes at the idea of being bait, she knew of Eliot's reputation so she was not overly worried and just continued to watch as her device ran through the numbers having already received the digits 8675 it was still working on processing the rest.

"Base come in. Does anyone copy?" the guards could be heard trying to get through to the control room as they approached the area.

"Roxy, they're almost there" Parker warned the girl, expecting her to get out of there.

Roxy looked up slightly out of the corner of her eye as the security guards rounded the corner and spotted her. They all reacted instantly and pointed their guns at her, the lead one shouted "Hold it right there"

Roxy rolled her eyes keeping a cursory eye on Eliot as he walked out from behind the guards interested to see him in action.

Eliot grabbed the two at the back of the square formation by their wrists putting pressure on them making them instantly release their grip on the guns; he kicked one in the ankle and elbowing the opposite one in the solar plexus, before punching the first one in the nose knocking him out.

As the guard went down he hit the one in front of him knocking him off balance which Eliot took advantage of by sending an uppercut straight up his chin rendering him unconscious.

He grabbed the second guy by his gun and dragged him down to meet his knee which he drove into his stomach. The only other guard still standing raised his gun only to lose it quickly as Eliot twisted his wrist then slamming him face first into the wire fence.

The second guard tried to charge at him but got tripped up face first into the floor knocking him out. He finished the last one off by dislocating his shoulder with a solid pull using his own shoulder as leverage; he sent an elbow straight to his face knocking him out and pushed him to the floor as well.

Eliot emptied the gun he had pulled off the last one and bragged to Roxy hoping to have impressed "That's what I do"

Roxy was slightly impressed but forced her face to remain neutral and unimpressed making Eliot scowl a little petulantly.

Roxy looked down as the machine beeped showing her the completed code of 8675309764 and the door clicked then swung open. Eliot and Roxy entered the server room, looking around at the mass of hard drives and computer software surrounding them makes Roxy grin in delighted anticipation.

~*0*~

"Guys, guys you gotta talk to me, okay? 'Cause I don't know what's going on" Nate asked having heard most of the fight but not knowing the outcome beyond that quite a few people were hurt.

~*0*~

Eliot was busy tying up the security guards with some zip ties that they had on them while Roxy worked on a terminal within the server room.

"It's all good Papa Bear; I'm stripping the drives right now" she said as she plugged in a usb flash drive and waited for it to finish doing its job "Come on cherry" she encouraged impatiently as it beeped letting her know it was finished, she removed the drive "Got all the designs, got all the backups. I'm leaving this cupboard bare" Roxy stored the drive in her jean pocket and pulled out another one, plugging it in.

~*0*~

"Drop the spike" Nate ordered.

~*0*~

In the server room the monitors all flashed white then went blank before showing the well known horror of the blue screen of death. All the systems seemed to blink off and power everything down leaving the room completely in the dark.

"Did you give them a virus?" Eliot asked as they watched everything shut down in the room.

"Hunny I gave them way more than one virus" Roxy smirked to herself, looked around the room feeling completely smug.

As they headed down the hallway Parker spoke up over the comms " _Problem. Those guards you ganked? They reset all the alarms on the roof and all the floors above us. We can't go up_ "

"Every man for himself then" Eliot shrugged before he started to walk away.

"Go right ahead sweetie I'm the one with the merchandise" Roxy smirked.

" _Yeah, well I'm the one with an exit_ " Parker interjected.

~*0*~

"And I'm the one with a plan" Nate stated, cutting off the brewing argument "Now I know you children don't play well with others but I need you to hold it together for exactly seven more minutes. Now get to the elevator and head down. We're going to the burn scam" he explained before turning away from the window.

~*0*~

Eliot and Roxy entered an elevator and began changing their clothes; Roxy took off her leather jacket and switched it for a professional blazer, before taking off her beanie and putting on some thick-rimmed glasses Eliot on the other hand removed his beanie and hair tie then he added a shirt and tie over his black t-shirt and a pair of frameless glasses.

"Going to Plan B" she queried as she ran her fingers through her tangled hair trying to make it look a little more presentable.

~*0*~

Nate answered "Technically that would be Plan G" as he shoved all his stuff quickly back into his bag.

~*0*~

The elevator doors opened and Parker ran in, she quickly began stripping off her top making the other two look away politely.

Roxy straightened her blazer then asked "How many plans do we have? Is there like a Plan M?"

~*0*~

"Yeah, I try never to use Plan M" Nate nodded to himself as he entered the elevator.

~*0*~

"Why?" Roxy asked with confusion which was quickly cleared up by Nate's simple response of " _People die in Plan M_ "

~*0*~

Down in the lobby the security guard looked toward the elevators as it dinged alerting them to the fact that one has just arrived on that floor.

One guard turned to the other and asked "I thought we locked down those elevators" before heading round the desk to check it out.

~*0*~

All of the team, now dressed in business suit were trying to put the finishing touches on Parker. Eliot knelt down to put a brace on Parker's leg while Roxy put prosthetic burns on her face and neck.

"Stay still sweetie" she said as Parker kept looking down to see what Eliot was doing and fidgeting "stay still. Don't move"

~*0*~

As the guard approached the elevator he placed his hand was on his gun ready just in case. The doors opened to reveal Parker walking with a hospital crutch, helped along by Roxy with Eliot following. The guard quickly covered his gun and stared at Parker as they moved toward the exit.

"Nice" Eliot scowled at the man as he saw him staring at Parkers face "Why don't you stare a little more?"

The guard stuttered and quickly moved forward as if to try and help them in some way "Sorry"

"You gotta be kidding me" Eliot growls in faux annoyance.

"No Tom, it's okay" Parker placated sadly as if to try and calm him down.

"No, it's not sweetie" Roxy said as she guided the now upset Parker toward the door.

"Sorry, sorry" the guard continued to stutter.

Parker now faking tearful sobs whimpered "I understand"

"Get the door, come on" Eliot ordered.

"I'm sorry" the guard said as he held open the door for them "Again, sorry"

~*0*~

Nate pulled up to the curb and watched as the others come through the doors.

Parker hobbled along with Roxy helping her and Eliot led the way, as they leave the building, they gradually drop the act as they head for the car. Parker threw her cane to Roxy who caught it as she got in the front of the car while Roxy joined Eliot in the back as Nate drove off.

~*0*~

In a nearby park the team stood around in a loose circle watching while Roxy worked away on a small laptop.

"Come on, come on, it's only taking all night. Come on" Nate bounced slightly wanting this to be done with.

"I got a couple of Wi-Fi networks with some crappy bandwidth" Roxy said shortly, hiding what she was really doing, as she continued to type not paying attention to his impatience "There you go. The designs are sent" she said as she twisted the laptop in her arms for him to watch as the file sent before she closed it.

"All right, all right. The money will be in all your accounts later today" Nate said before he turned to stride off only to be stopped by Roxy's voice.

"Anybody else notice how kick ass we were last night?" she smirked at the others.

"Yeah, well, one show only, no encores" Eliot stated slightly as he started to head off as well disappointed with the reaction he got from the girl he found himself attracted to.

"I already forgot your names" Parker shrugged haughtily.

"It was kind of cool, being on the same side" Roxy said to Nate.

"No, we are not on the same side. I am not a thief" Nate denied adamantly shaking his head.

Roxy snorts and explained "You are now. You just helped to take part in a crime" as if teaching something to a five-year-old.

Parker chose this moment to chip in as well "Come on Nathan, tell the truth. Didn't you have a little bit of fun playing the Black King instead of the White Knight, just this once?" but he ignored them all and walked off, the others quickly dispersing in different directions as well.

~*0*~

Nate was sleeping on the bed in his hotel room still wearing the clothes from the night before, little empty bottles of whiskey littering the nightstand. His phone rang waking him up and he fumbled to answer it, knocking the bottles off his night stand.

"Yeah" he grunted in greeting not even bothering to look at the caller ID.

Dubenich was on the other end and was growling angrily " _You screwed me! The designs never got to me"_

"No" Nate said as he rubbed his eyes trying to wake himself up so he could focus "I watched them go out"

" _I don't know what you saw but I received nothing!"_

"Look, I told you, you couldn't trust 'em" Nate shrugged to himself.

" _It is not my job to trust anybody that is what you were here for. I am freezing the payments. I am freezing all the payments_."

Nate tried to placate the man "All right, look. Look, I will come over there right now, we'll straighten this out"

" _No, no, no do not come here. My company has an old aircraft facility outside the city and I will text you the address and you be there, in one hour_ "

The phone disconnected after Dubenich had finished his little rant and Nate slowly put down his phone looking at it as suspicion planted itself in his mind.

~*0*~

Nate walked slowly into the old air craft facility he had been given the address for and headed down toward a large room where he could hear voices coming from.

He rounded the corner only to see Eliot, wearing the same jacket and boots as last night but with a red t-shirt and boot cut jeans, and Roxanne, wearing a hooded jacket under her biker jacket with her skinny jeans and boots, going toe to toe.

"You mind telling me what happened to the designs?" Roxy demanded of Eliot.

"What makes you think I know what happened?" Eliot asked incredulously.

"Look, the only other person who was within reach of the hard drive was you because I know I didn't do it..." Roxy explained angrily.

"Yeah, that makes sense doesn't it? You had the file every second sweetheart" Eliot shot back.

"Hold up sweetie, I did my part, I downloaded and transferred the files" Roxy snarled back not in any way intimidated by the man.

"You better back the hell off" Eliot growled.

"Oh, what are you gonna do?" Roxy goaded.

"…or else I'm gonna rip off your arm and feed it to you" Eliot finished his threat only to be interrupted by the entrance of Nate Ford.

"Hey!" he yelled breaking the two of them apart as they turned to face him.

"Did you do it? You're the only one that's ever played both sides" Eliot asked still scowling.

"Yeah, you seem pretty relaxed for a guy that should be pretty angry" Nate said having been watching long enough to know he got angry at Roxy accusing him but was fairly relaxed otherwise "You armed?"

Eliot shook his head "I don't like guns" before looking pointedly past Nate's shoulder. Nate turned to see Parker who was holding a gun on him.

"My money's not in my account" Parker pouted with a contradictory look of menace in her eyes as she walked around Roxy, keeping her gun trained on them as they follow her with their gaze, none of them willing to take their eyes off the crazy thief "That makes me cry inside in my special, angry place"

"Okay, Parker" Nate said as he reached out to lower Parker's gun "Now did you come here to get paid?"

"Hell no. I want a transfer of funds babe. Global economy" Roxy demanded.

"It's supposed to be a walk away. I'm never supposed to see you people again" Eliot scowled disgruntled.

"Then the only reason you guys are here is because you didn't get paid. And you're pissed off" Nate started to laugh as he comes to the realization of why he felt so suspicious earlier "As a matter of fact the only way to get us all in the same place at the same time is to tell us that we're not. Getting. Paid" he trailed off as he finished explaining, realization swept through the group and they all turned and started to run for the nearest exit.

Nate broke off having spotted an exit first and pressed the button to open the garage door and directed them out the door one at a time. They all raced for the door Parker in the lead followed by Roxy then Eliot. Nate turned to leave before looking back over his shoulder only to see a ball of fire headed straight for him. He ducked toward the door and tried to cover himself as much as he possibly could but the explosion caught up with him.

The building exploded in a huge blast of fire, throwing Roxy, Eliot and Parker to the ground outside the warehouse knocking them unconscious.

~*0*~

In a Hospital room Nate woke up only to find himself handcuffed to a bed. Across the room, Eliot was handcuffed to a chair, with Roxy and Parker on beds opposite them. Both of them playing with a pair of handcuffs that had obviously been used to tie them to the beds previously and they had released themselves.

"You don't like hospitals" Eliot smirked at Nate.

"Not much" Nate said as he shook his head trying to clear it.

"It's about time" Parker said.

"What?" Nate shook his head again trying to focus his eyes.

"Cops and firemen got there just as we were waking up. You've been unconscious for about 45 minutes" Roxy explained.

"Where are we?" Nate asked, starting to be able to think clearly.

"County hospital. Local cops responded to the explosion" Parker explained.

"Have we been processed?" Nate asked.

Eliot waved ink covered finger tips at him making him look down at his own hand and seeing the same.

"They faxed our prints to the State Police" Eliot said.

"If they run us, we are screwed" Roxy frowned, as she tried to think of a way out of this situation.

"How long?" Parker asked Roxy.

"Thirty to thirty-five minutes depending on the software" Roxy answered.

"They printed us twenty minutes ago. So unless we get out of here in the next ten minutes we all go to jail" Eliot gestured around at everyone.

"Yeah, all right. I uh …" Nate said trying to shake the cobwebs from his head in order to think up a plan.

"I can take these cops" Eliot said leaning toward the man.

"Don't you dare! You kill anyone you screw up my getaway" Parker exclaimed.

"Parker! If Roxy can create a distraction can you get me two phones? What we're going to do is, we're going to get out of here together" Nate said shutting them all up before another argument can start.

"This was a onetime deal" Eliot scowled exasperated.

"Look guys, here's your problem. You all know what you can do, I know what all you can do, so that gives me the edge, gives me the plan" Nate explained.

"I don't trust these guys" Parker said.

"Do you trust me?" Nate asked looking directly at her.

Eliot answered for all of them "Of course. You're an honest man"

"Roxy, Distraction. Parker, Phone" Nate ordered.

Roxy groaned as she locked herself to the bed again "This is gonna suck" she stuck her fingers down the back of her throat and bent over throwing up over the side of the bed.

"Eww! Gross" Parker wrinkled her nose in disgust, along with Eliot. Even Nate cringed disgusted as well, having not quite expected her to do that.

A few moments later, Roxy was lying handcuffed to her hospital bed with a thermometer sticking out of her mouth, while a doctor was bent over her to check her eyes trying to find the reason for her sudden bout of nausea.

"Nausea could mean a concussion. If you feel any more effects or blurred vision, tell the policeman right away" the Doctor explained to the sickly girl on the bed. Roxy nodded her head weakly as the doctor and nurse leave the room. One of the officers checked her handcuffs then left.

Parker and Roxy held up the phones they stole. After a quick glance, they switched phones so that Roxy had the one with the camera. Parker held up the keys she stole and tossed them to Roxy so she could unlock herself easily before standing up to give the phone without a camera to Nate.

"Right, I got it. So the trick is to give them what they want. They're expecting a phone call, right?" Nate explained quickly. Eliot caught on quickly and dialed the phone watching Roxy as she took a profile picture of herself to create a quick FBI alias.

~*0*~

Out in the hallway a nurse approached the officer outside the room explaining "There's an outside call for you. Line 2" before she led him over to the nurses' station so he could take the call.

~*0*~

Roxy quickly typed out the rest of the profile on the phone "Okay" she nodded at Nate so that he knew she was nearly done and would start faxing it to them soon.

~*0*~

"This is Deputy Burns" the officer spoke into the phone.

~*0*~

Eliot spoke with a strong southern accent as he talked through the phone disguising his voice "This is Detective Lieutenant Carden with the Illinois State Police. We got those prints that you sent us. The problem I have is that they're sending up red flags all over the place and I've got somebody on the phone for you from the FBI down there in Washington. Can you hold son?" Eliot waited for a response before tossing the phone to Nate.

~*0*~

"Yes, sir" the officer straightened as he waited to talk to the FBI.

~*0*~

Roxy looked up from the phone she was working on sending the papers through the Unifax software "Come on. There it goes" Roxy nodded as the fax started to process.

Nate caught the phone and held it to his ear, he spoke in a gruff demanding voice full of authority "Yeah, Deputy Burns, this is Deputy-Director McCumber, FBI. Yes, is our agent all right?"

~*0*~

The officer stumbled a little unsure how to respond "Uh, I'm sorry, I don't follow …"

~*0*~

Nate continued "Deputy, listen to me one of the women that you have inside there is ours actually. She's been in deep cover for three years"

~*0*~

"Seriously?" the officer said shocked wondering which one it could possibly be.

~*0*~

"That's correct. In fact, you should be receiving a fax any moment now confirming what I'm telling you" Nate stated as he saw Roxy nod to confirm, the words just leaving his mouth as he heard someone approaching him along with a rustle of paper "Most of what I've told you is classified. I need to know I can trust you. Can I?" Nate finished.

~*0*~

"Yes sir" the officer said looking at the picture of the brunette on the page supposedly confirming her identity as Agent Hilary Dutton.

~*0*~

Roxy led Eliot to one of the officer's police cruisers that Nate and Parker were already inside of. As Roxy guided Eliot into the backseat she accidently hit his head on the top of the door frame.

Eliot turned and growled at Roxy who grinned sheepishly at him but said "Walk it off and get inside. Get inside" Eliot got in the car with a couple more shoves from Roxy.

Roxy turned to the police and flashed them a winning smile "thank you for your assistance gentlemen"

"I thought you had too much of an honest face to really be involved but you never know, you know" the deputy responded.

"Why thank you" she smiled before she got into the car and stuck her tongue out at the rest of them through the rear view mirror and teased quietly "I have an honest face"

Nate snorted "I thought that too at first but then I got to know you!" this made Roxy laugh, knowing how true that was, while the others just looked bemused.

A nurse approached the police just as Roxy gunned the engine and drove away just able to hear what the nurse had to say "There's a call for you, State Police" making Roxy smile feeling pretty smug.

~*0*~

Roxy drove everyone to the safe house she had set up when she took this job. After ditching the car, a couple of blocks away she led them all inside. Roxy headed straight over to her computer explaining "Four first class tickets to anywhere but here, coming right up"

"Whose place is this?" Parker asked looking around the sparse room that contained just a sofa, coffee table, TV, kitchen area, computer set up and for some reason a snooker table.

"It's mine. I set on up where ever I am doing a job, but I actually live in either LA or Boston" Roxy explained.

"I'm gonna beat Dubenich so bad that even the people who look like him are gonna bleed" Eliot growled, cracking his knuckles looking ready for a fight.

"You won't get within 100 yards" Parker replied simply as she leaned back on a wooden pillar in the middle of the room "He knows your face. He knows all our faces"

"He tried to kill us" Eliot growled at her.

"More importantly he didn't pay us" Parker said with narrow eyes.

"How is that more important?" Eliot asked the girl incredulously.

"I take that personally" Parker looked over at him with a crazy look in her eyes.

"There's something wrong with you" Eliot reiterated.

"Heads up" Roxy called out and waved them all to join her at her computer. She pointed out some things on her monitor "Heads up look. Dubenich's story is 90 percent true. He is the head of Bering Aerospace big rival to Pierson, but, check out what my little web crawlers coughed up" as a web page opened for CNN news and starts playing a live video of Pierson's Aviation Representative

"We've lost research that we've been working on for over five years. Our servers have been sabotaged, now we're going to pursue these perpetrators to the full extent of the law and with all the resources we have at our disposal"

"Could be a cover story" Nate said but didn't sound very convinced himself.

"Here's a log of last night's rip (routing information protocol)" she explained seeing Parker about to ask "Internal timestamps on the project –2003, 2004, they're way, way down in the code. There's no reason to fake those babe" Roxy shook her head.

"So we didn't steal the plans back?" Eliot asked walking closer and leaning over her slightly.

"No, we were just stealing them" Parker said from her position against the Pillar.

"Why would Dubenich lie to us?" Roxy asked confused, they would have done it anyway for that amount of money.

"Cause your thieves. If he hired you for a straight up crime, you'd know he was a bad guy like you, you'd be suspicious. This way you just saw another citizen in over his head and that's why you didn't see the double cross coming" Nate explained after seeing that she genuinely didn't understand.

"Why didn't you see it coming?" Parker asked.

"Because I'm not a thief" Nate said for what already felt like the thousandth time.

"You know what, maybe that was the problem. If you..." Eliot got cut off by Roxy standing up from her computer and grabbed something from her printer.

"Hey" she said handing each person a sheet of flight information "I bought tickets to London, Rome, Paris and Sao Paulo all matching the IDs that you gave me"

Nate ignored the piece of paper held out to him and walked over to look at Roxy's monitors deep in thought "You're running"

"Yes sir. You got a better idea?" Eliot asked confused.

"I don't think he was talking to us" Roxy mused.

"No, no" Nate waved him off not having heard Roxy, just continuing to look at the picture of Dubenich on the screen "You're running. Now that was a high-risk play. You got your balls tied to the stock price like a cinder block, shareholder meeting coming up. We can't let this guy have any time to cool down" Nate finished before turning to look at the others in the group a spark of something lit up his eyes.

Eliot walked up to Nate looking shocked "You want to run a game on this guy? You?"

"Yeah. I mean, how do you think I got most of my stolen merchandise back? I mean, this guy he's greedy, he thinks he's smart, he's the best kind of mark" Nate grinned adrenaline beginning to flow through him already.

"He does think he got rid of us" Parker mused starting to smirk "Element of surprise"

"What's in it for me?" Eliot demanded.

"Payback, and if it goes right a lot of money" Nate smirked at Eliot's relenting expression.

"What's in it for me?" Parker asked smirking.

"A lot of money, and if it goes right, payback. Roxy?" he finished turning to the last member of the group that had remained quiet so far.

Roxy shrugged and said "I was just gonna steal the money myself anyway, but if we can bring him down as well that'd be the cherry. Hell yeah. Let's go have some fun!" she grinned at their shocked expressions.

Eliot shook off his incredulity and demanded of Nate "What's in it for you?"

Nate's expression darkened "He used my son" he shook off his dark mood and headed for the door expecting the others to follow "All right. Let's go get Sophie"

Eliot stared at his retreating back and asked the room "What the hell's a Sophie?"

"I'm gonna guess a person sweetness" Roxy teased as she passed him loving the unimpressed look on his face, not noticing the small smile that lit up Eliot's face as she turned away as he started to understand the girl.

~*0*~

Sophie Devereaux was on a small stage in a little back alley theatre dressed in a red medieval dress and a crown, doing a terrible job of acting out Lady Macbeth. "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst! Make thick my blood" she shouted dramatically falling to her knees on the stage.

Roxy, Parker and Eliot all stood at the back of the empty rows of seats, looking on in shock and horror at the awful display as Nate watched intently smiling in delight.

Sophie stood up again on stage and continued "Stop up the access and passage to remorse, that no…" she hesitated slightly forgetting her line momentarily before she restarted "That no compunctious visiting's of nature"

"She is truly awful" Roxy stated looking disturbed.

"Is she injured? In the head?" Parker asked confused.

"Seriously man, this is the worst actress I've ever seen" Eliot finished for them all looking at Nate in mild horror.

"This is not her stage" Nate explained briefly not being in any way reassuring, and then turning to leave expecting them all to follow as he led them to wait outside for her.

~*0*~

Sophie exited the theatre into the back alley reaching into her purse for something not noticing the group of people gathered at the end of the alley waiting on her.

Nate, Roxy, Eliot and Parker stood in front of their car while Eliot tried to talk sense into Nate "No. No, I vote no"

"Parker's right, Dubenich knows us and we need a fresh face" Nate started to clap as Sophie approached catching her immediate attention "I thought you were great"

"My only fan" Sophie smiled at Nate, both of them thinking back to the last time they saw each other.

~*0*~

 _Flashback:_

 _In Paris seven years ago, Sophie was carefully cutting a painting out of a frame with several other empty frames nearby. The door burst open and Nate entered with a small gun in hand and yelled "Freeze"_

 _Sophie grabbed her revolver off the window sill and shot Nate in the shoulder. He responded quickly in kind by shooting her in the back. They both clench at their wound trying to apply pressure._

 _Sophie gasps "You wanker"_

~*0*~

"I'm a citizen now. Honest" Sophie defended herself quickly.

Nate replied with a simple "I'm not"

"You're playing my side" Sophie asked in surprise before glancing at the team who were all stood against the car behind him "I always thought you had it in you"

"Um, are you in?" Nate asked shifting uncomfortably.

Sophie nodded enthusiastically "I wouldn't miss this" she explained.

"All right. All right, let's break the law just one more time" Nate clapped before he turned to get into the car holding the passenger door open for Sophie as he went. The others all followed as the Nate drove them back to Roxy's apartment.

~*0*~

Back at the apartment they all sat around on the sofas looking at Roxy's wall monitor as it displayed pictures of Dubenich. The team listened to the briefing she was providing on the information she had managed to gather so far.

"Victor Dubenich, executive vice-president in charge of new technology development over at Bering Aerospace" Eliot entered with popcorn and sat down right in the middle of all of them but not before he shoved Parkers feet off the coffee table. Roxy took a sip of her coffee before she continued "Rich daddy, trust fund, Yale MBA. Blah, blah blah"

"Victor? Now when was the last time you met a Victor?" Nate smirked, enjoying himself more than he probably should.

"Vietnam. Town called Banho Zay" Eliot answered.

"Chinese border" Sophie asked.

"That's an odd thing for you to know" Eliot said looking at her with a raised eye brow.

"That's an odd place for you to be" Sophie responded before turning her attention back on Roxy.

"Now Bering is in charge of a lot of big fat government contracts. Some Department of Defense research, some very classified stuff" Roxy explained.

"Can we use that?" Parker asked as she grabbed a hand full of Eliot's popcorn and started popping them in her mouth.

"No, I don't think so. Dubenich is in charge of their commercial airline business. But it does mean that if the FBI has reason to look into Dubenich they have to look through everything under The Patriot Act" Roxy explained.

Nate nodded to himself appreciating that added bit of information before leaning forward to look over at Roxy "I know when you sent Dubenich his designs you weren't supposed to make any copies"

Roxy immediately placed a hand on her heart and plastered an innocent look on her face, believable to no one there and answering with as much seriousness as she could muster "No, I promised. That would be very wrong"

Nate grinned at her with amusement "Show me your copies"

Roxy smiled and brought up the design copies "It's an airplane design"

"It's a short alt domestic airliner, yeah, usually one hour flights. It's the fastest growing segment of the industry, very fuel efficient. High tech. Very nice carbon nose, it's got the titanium wrap. 3 to 1" Nate said pacing round the back of the sofa as he explained, a smirk covered his face at their looks of surprise "You know, you pick up things here and there"

"You must pick up a lot of stuff" Roxy said looking vaguely impressed.

Parker barked out a very loud and obnoxious "Ha!"

"Here check this out. Now Dubenich and Pierson they were head to head for five years trying to grab the lead in an industry that's worth like eleven-billion dollars" Roxy explained what they had stolen.

"So Pierson got there first, Dubenich took a short cut" Parker simplified.

"So he's got a rival. He's got a rival that pisses him off so much he hired us to steal his designs. This is good" Nate nodded a plan nearly fully formed inside his head as he considers all the information Roxy had managed to give him.

Sophie looked at him over the back of the sofa and said "What are you thinking, Nate?"

Nate hummed to himself slightly before he said "I'm thinking Nigerians. Yeah, Nigerians will do nicely" before he walked away.

The others looked at each other in confusion apart from Sophie who was watching him go with a fond smile on her face "Well, he hasn't changed a bit"

~*0*~

Dubenich arrived at his office and headed past his secretary straight for his office but halted when he heard her calling out to him "Your 9 o'clock is here"

"My…?" he turned around confused; as far as he was aware he didn't have any appointments today, only to see Sophie sat in a chair waiting for him.

Sophie stood up and approached the man as he turned to her and held out a business card, introducing herself using an African accent "Mr. Dubenich, Anna Gunschtot, African Commercial Transport and Trade Initiative"

~*0*~

Roxy sat down at her computer, wearing a long black jumper dress designed with a fashionable skeleton, with leggings, her glasses and polka dot Doc Martins, with her coffee listening in as Nate watched over her shoulder "Here comes the world of suck"

~*0*~

Dubenich took the card looking it over before he asked the woman "You government?"

"No, no. Private business consortium" Sophie assured as he led her into his office "We are looking to encourage infrastructure development and economic renewal"

"I have no idea what that means in English. What does it mean?" Dubenich laughed slightly as he sat behind his desk.

Sophie smiled reassuringly at him making him automatically smile in return "We create jobs and trade in Africa. Keep the graft and the stealing manageable"

~*0*~

Roxy stared at the screen incredulously "She's not awful" she said looking up at Nate in shock.

"This is her stage. Sophie Devereaux is the finest actress you'll ever see… when she's breaking the law" Nate explained with a smile, liking the blunt almost offensive honesty that the girl seemed to always display, it was quite the contradiction considering what he knew about her.

~*0*~

"Keep graft and stealing manageable in Africa" Dubenich laughed slightly "good luck but I don't think I can help. I don't think any human being on Earth can help you with that. Sorry"

"Come on. Let's go and talk somewhere a little less formal, eh?" Sophie replied as she led him back out of the office then outside the building.

"Uh, no, no, no. Look, I, Miss, ah…" Dubenich stuttered but hurried to follow her as the secretary watched them go.

~*0*~

"Okay, and now" Nate said to Roxy.

Roxy hit a few keys on her computer and the secretary's computer whined slightly before it crashed.

~*0*~

The secretary saw her computer freeze and started tapping at the keyboard frantically trying to get it to work only to see the blue screen of death; she muttered to herself "No. No, no. No, no, no please" before picking up her phone and dialing the number for IT.

~*0*~

Parker hidden in the ventilation shaft had a phone hooked into the wiring directing the secretaries call directly to her as it rings quietly she answered it "Hello IT"

"Hi, Yeah, this is Victor Dubenich's office, my computer just completely crashed" the secretary said over the line still tapping at her keyboard.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Did you try turning it on and off again?" Parker said in a bored voice, as if she had already had to say this a million times today.

~*0*~

Back in the apartment they here the answer of "Yes, nothing seems to be working" from the secretary.

"That's a computer thing that most people don't even think of trying most of the time. It's a soft reset which is quite often all it need it's very annoying when it needs to be said to try that" Roxy ranted quietly, having previously done a job where she got in through the IT department she thought it was ridiculous that people didn't even think of trying it.

Nate just smiled at the girl for her irritation knowing that despite how she could come across she was very professional when it comes to her fields of interest.

They heard Parker finish up the conversation then hang up "We've got someone on your floor already"

~*0*~

Back in Dubenich's office the secretary said "Thank you" as she placed the phone back on the receiver.

She looked up just as Eliot walked in, wearing beige slacks, checkered shirt, striped tie, and thick-rimmed glasses taped together in the middle with a tool box in hand "Somebody call IT?" he smiled.

~*0*~

Outside the office onto Michigan Avenue, Sophie led Dubenich down some stairs to the side of Chicago River "I represent a group of investors who are looking to start an airline for short tour flights in Africa" she explained.

"Of Johannesburg?" Dubenich questioned.

Over the comms Nate said " _Okay, he's testing you. You want Bloemfontein_ "

"Keep away from the hubs" Sophie waved "Revitalize the regional airports. In South Africa, Bloemfontein for example. But really, it's Nigeria we're focused on"

" _Yeah, perfect_ " Nate commended.

"Most of their airport runways are a mess" Dubenich replied.

"I believe new airplanes will make people more comfortable while we renew old runways" Sophie said.

"Uh huh. I don't recall saying anything about new airplanes" Dubenich shuttered in surprise.

"Victor" Sophie smiled as she leaned back on the railing along the side of the river "Both you and your chief engineer are scheduled to speak at your shareholder's meeting"

"I think you know more about my business than I do" Dubenich asked suspiciously.

"I've done my homework. I find you fascinating" Sophie flattered.

~*0*~

In Dubenich's office while Eliot distracted the secretary by flirting with her, Parker opened the vent and drops down.

"It's good. It's good to have a passion, you know" the secretary responded to something Eliot had said spinning slightly in her chair towards the office window.

Eliot quickly grabbed the arm of her chair stopping her from swinging round too much and quickly changes the conversation to keep her attention on him "Let me show you how to uh reconnect with the network"

~*0*~

"Now, you just wanna unplug the power supply from the back of the computer not the monitor to sort the problem for her but mess around with the wires, keyboard and mouse that'll delay it long enough for Parker to do her thing" Roxy explained over the comms to Eliot.

~*0*~

Parker moved to Dubenich's computer and turned it on. She plugged in a flash drive that Roxy had given her earlier, and pressed some of the keys on the keyboard like she had been shown to make the transfer start before planting a grey box with a flashing red light on it under the desk.

~*0*~

"All right" Eliot nodded to himself as the computer came back on like Roxy said it would, the secretary put her hand on the mouse to log herself back in and Eliot quickly covered her hand with his to guide it "Voila"

The secretary felt his arm seeing how strong he was she asks "You are strong for a computer guy"

"Why thank you" Eliot smiled at the girl "I like to work out and try to stay big 'cause I love dressing up like a Klingon and going to all the conventions, you know. Baktag!" he exclaims loudly hearing Roxy starting to giggle down the comms as the woman jumps "Sorry"

"It's okay" she smiles and blushes before saying "Baktag!" back just as loudly.

"Oh! Don't you tease me" he half smiles back trying to ignore Roxy's laughter down the comms.

~*0*~

"You do know you just called each other garbage, right?" Roxy cackled to herself, knowing certain words in Klingon and finding it hilarious.

Nate snorted slightly with amusement finding the idea of Eliot accidently insulting someone while trying to nerd flirt quite funny before shaking his head and paying attention to the job again.

~*0*~

Parker removed flash drive and climbed back into the vent securing the cover behind her.

~*0*~

Eliot tried not to react outwardly but was suppressing a groan as he changed the subject rather abruptly "You've got unbelievably blue eyes"

The secretary rather predictably blushed "Thank you"

Eliot continued "They're stunning. Just breathtakingly blue"

~*0*~

"Uh, sorry is it Gunshot?" Dubenich asked a little flustered at the comment.

"No, Gunschtot" Sophie smiled.

Dubenich immediately apologized hoping he hadn't offended "I'm sorry. Really sorry"

"Call me Anna" Sophie purred slightly hoping to keep him off balance.

Dubenich took a deep breath regaining his thought process before answering "Anna, thank you. How's this? If we announce a new product, then you can order as many as your little heart desires"

Nate nodded even though Sophie couldn't see him " _Okay, you know what to do. Hit him_ "

"We'd also like to build the planes" Sophie explained "More jobs. Build them in Africa, fly them in Africa, sell the rest around the world"

"Well, that's very ambitious. You have the manufacturing facilities to do all that?" Dubenich asked.

Sophie waved off the idea "Ah! We can easily raise the money to build the facilities if we know for certain we're going to get the contracts"

" _Atta girl_ "

Dubenich shook his head with regret "Anna, I'm really sorry but I can't help you"

~*0*~

"It was a nice attempt Nate" Roxy sighed disappointed.

"Wait for it" Nate said simply.

~*0*~

Sophie sighed as if disappointed "I understand"

Dubenich checked his watch as he prepared to leave "And I really do have…"

"I'll take it to Pierson" she said bluntly, switching from subtle manipulation to blatant.

This stopped Dubenich from walking away as Sophie got up from where she was lent against the rail and walked towards him "Pierson? Uh, sure, go ahead, Pierson's a great company, I don't think they can help you, but…"

"Oh, they have a reputation for long-term investment, you don't. They're innovators. Yeah, it's probably a better fit" Sophie smirked.

"I now am aware that you're manipulating me, Anna" Dubenich said obviously.

"Well I should hope so. Hundreds of millions of dollars in new contracts, a lot of good press, all at your door" Sophie enticed.

"Okay, I give up, I'll take the meeting" Dubenich held up his hands in defense before going to shake her hand as he sees her turn to walk back up the stairs.

Sophie ignored the hand and walked up the stairs "I'll have my office call you"

"What? Yeah" Dubenich said thrown off a little by her abrupt departure.

"Day after tomorrow?" she smiled as she nears the top of the stairs.

"Uh, yeah sure. Look forward to doing business with you" Dubenich waved at her as she disappeared.

~*0*~

Nate clapped Roxy on the shoulder excited, laughing they share a high five at the success of the first part of the job.

~*0*~

Later that evening Roxy was on her computer going through all the information they gathered from Dubenich's office, while Eliot was playing pool waiting for Nate to return from the kitchen to take his shot.

"Hey, Nate" Roxy called out as he passed her "I got all his financials off the hard drive and all his passwords"

"Good" Nate nodded at her before continuing onto the pool table.

"Your shot" Eliot said as he chalked up a cue. Putting down the chalk he picked up the second beer and offered it to Nate who waved him off.

"No thanks" he said grabbing his cue and lining up a shot "Five corner"

"You look better than when we started" Eliot noticed putting down Nate beer and taking a pull of his own.

"Yeah" Nate answered looking uncomfortable.

"Yeah. And that bothers you, huh?" Eliot guessed.

"I uh, well this isn't supposed to feel… and I'm not supposed to like…" Nate paused trying to find the word.

"Good? It's not that hard to figure out. Dubenich screwed you. He cheated by stealing from that other company and your good guy brain sees him as the bad guy. Your conscience is clear" Eliot said hitting the mark.

"You want to take your shot?" Nate deflected not wanting to talk about it anymore.

"Listen" Eliot started, he put down his beer and cleared his throat "I'm sorry about your kid" he finished sincerely.

"You don't know anything about that" Nate said sounding a little breathless.

"Everybody knows. A guy like you goes off the street a lot of people notice. And it was a bad story, too. How did they justify that, huh? The insurance company just not paying for his treatment?" Eliot asked curious.

"They claimed it was experimental" Nate said but didn't expand anymore as he grabbed his beer and took a gulp.

"You should have kept one of those Monet's you found. You fence that" Eliot smirked trying to lighten the mood again, but knowing he had already screwed that up.

"Eliot, you and I are not friends" Nate growled finishing his beer he slammed it down on the table.

Eliot doesn't take any offence knowing he'd pushed the man a little too much "Right. Right. Because you have so many of them" he pointed to Sophie, who is approaching from behind Nate "Incoming" he said before walking away to get another beer.

Sophie came up beside him and offered him her ear bud "Hey, can you help me with this earpiece?"

Nate tried to avoid her by directing her elsewhere "Uh, yeah, ask Roxy…"

Sophie rolled her eyes "Nate, come on" She held out the ear piece to him which he took before she tucked her hair behind her ear, Nate placed it gently into her ear before covering it back up with her hair "Thanks. So, uh, this time you really are inside my head" she said looking up at him through her eye lashes before she walked away.

Roxy glided her computer chair across the room to the kitchen to get another coffee "Mmm hm" She smirked at Nate knowingly making him flush a little, still getting used to her teasing. "Ha ha, no need to get all flustered babe. We are still people even if we are criminals, no shame in liking the thrill of it a little. Its kinda why we keep doing it" she smiles before going back to her computer as Nate ponders over what she said.

~*0*~

Dubenich pulled up in front of an office building and got out of his car, he directed his driver to drive round the block a few times until he was called back, with his coffee in hand he headed inside, not noticing Nate and Roxy sat outside a coffee shop just across the street

"Sophie, he's on-site" Nate let her know through the comms.

~*0*~

Sophie looked slightly startled and turned away from the group of Nigerians that are she had just been getting settling into the room "What? No, I'm not ready"

~*0*~

Dubenich took off his sun glasses and looked around the lobby of the building looking slightly impressed before heading over to the directory.

~*0*~

Nate got up and started pacing "If you don't meet him right now in the lobby he's going to go to the building directory and look for the office number. Guys we are not in the building directory"

~*0*~

Eliot was inside walking up the stairs to the office they were using holding a bag and a sign. "And why aren't we in the directory?" Eliot questioned of Roxy.

~*0*~

"I don't know, maybe because they're fake offices and the directory is an independent system that isn't hackable" Roxy rolled her eyes "To have access to that system I would have had to break into the reception desk and edit it from there and then they would have seen it when they logged on today and the con would've been blown before we even started!"

~*0*~

Sophie ran to the elevator and hit buttons "There's no elevator"

~*0*~

"All right we'll distract him" Nate said as he heads towards the office building, Roxy stayed seated and pulling a small laptop out of her bag "Parker you got ten seconds to get Sophie to the lobby"

~*0*~

Parker opened the door to the floor Sophie was on and whisper yelled "Sophie!" getting her attention from where she was still trying to call for an elevator.

Sophie ran up to her asking "What's going on?"

"Put this on" Parker said without answering her question and threw her a harness.

"What it for?" Sophie asked looking extremely cautious now.

"Speed" Parker said as she dragged Sophie through the door with an excited gleam in her eye as Eliot walked through it with a small tool box and a sign.

~*0*~

Roxy typed quickly on her laptop, hacking into the system of the car furthest down the line she set off its alarm. Repeating the process on several of the other cars as Nate took a retractable baton from his coat and headed for the older model of cars that she hadn't been able to access. He hit out the windows of them triggering the car alarm.

~*0*~

Dubenich paused and looked toward the door as several people ran to see what was happening outside. He took a couple of steps toward the door before shaking his head being that his car wasn't nearby there was nothing for him to really see outside.

~*0*~

Parker attached the harness holding her and Sophie to a rope with her D links. Sophie looked over the rail and whimpered slightly at seeing the long way down.

~*0*~

Dubenich approached the building directory and started typing on the touch screen.

~*0*~

Eliot finished drilling up a sign by the office door before he turned and headed for the staircase again.

~*0*~

Parker and Sophie jumped over the railing, descended down the centre of all the stairs very quickly making Sophie scream all the way down.

~*0*~

Dubenich began typing the name of the company on the directory display just as Sophie came out of the stairwell, looking flushed. She walked over straightening her blazer and hair before catching his attention. "Oh, ah, our offices are on the tenth floor" Sophie announced, she sounded slightly breathless still but was covering it well.

"Oh. You're uh, you have a glow" Dubenich said almost doing a double take at Sophie's abrupt appearance.

"Just …" Sophie waved her hand as she thought of what to say "excited" before she turned and gestured for him to follow her toward the elevators.

~*0*~

They entered the elevator and Sophie pressed one of the buttons for the 10th floor "One thing. The gentleman bringing you this opportunity to work with their government, they'll, um, expect some, um, compensation. Not a bribe of course" Sophie smiled.

Dubenich smirked back having seen that coming "A finder's fee"

Sophie returned the smirk with one of her own "Exactly".

Dubenich huffed a laugh before he asked "I thought your job was to eliminate graft and stealing"

Sophie shook her head "No. My job is to keep it manageable"

~*0*~

Sophie led Dubenich into a room filled with a group of Nigerian officials. The man that seemed to be in charge, a Mister Babatunde stood as Dubenich Approached and offered his hand to shake "Good afternoon. Mr. Dubenich, we are honored by your presence"

"No, no, the honor is entirely all mine, getting in on the ground floor of something like this is a wonderful opportunity" Dubenich shook his hand before they all took their seats.

~*0*~

Nate and Roxy were sat back at the coffee shop as Parker came over to join them.

"Nice job on the zip line" Nate complimented

Parker kicked her feet up onto the table as she answered "Totally thought she was going to break a leg. Not bad for a first time" she crossed her arms with a smirk.

" _So what do you think?"_ they all heard Dubenich talk over the comms.

Nate drawled "She's closing it up"

~*0*~

Babatunde answered the affirmative "Yes, absolutely. We can definitely repurpose those factories"

Dubenich clapped his hands "Great"

Babatunde continued sounding quite enthused "I believe we will be able to do a lot of business together, sir"

Sophie Interrupted softly at this point and hinted "About the… the other matter"

Babatunde immediately straightened and put his hand into his inside blazer pocket "Of course"

Sophie stood up and walked to the group at the other end of the table. She took an envelope from Babatunde and brought it to Dubenich, who opened it under the table. A piece of paper inside said $1,000,000.

Sophie sat back down holding her hands together in a thoughtful prayer position and asked "Is it agreeable?"

Dubenich looked up from where he was staring at the number, put the paper back in the envelope and then put it in his inside pocket "Oh, I think we can work something out"

Sophie clapped her hands together "Excellent"

~*0*~

Dubenich got into his car and was driven away. The rest of the team joined Sophie on the sidewalk watching as the man left.

Nate asked Sophie "We got him?"

Sophie smirked happily "We own him"

Nate nodded before he led the way to his car "Okay gang, let's go. We got a busy day tomorrow"

"This is going to work, right?" Sophie asked a little worried.

"I guarantee it" Nate answered completely confident.

~*0*~

Dubenich dragged his head engineer Jenkins into his office with him. Jenkins complained "This is insane. We are risking everything" but cut off when Dubenich motioned him to be silent and pulled him down to look under the desk "We already took a chance by..." Jenkins trailed off as Dubenich shone a flashlight under the desk showing the grey box with a blinking red light that Parker had placed there earlier.

They walked back out of the reception "What is that?" Jenkins asked in a whisper.

"It's a transmitter and they've been listening to everything I've been saying" Dubenich explained.

Jenkins shook his head confused "Who are 'they'?"

Dubenich pulled out a picture of Nate meeting up with Sophie and talking "Who do you think? Also, I've checked, there's no office for the African Commercial Trade Initiative anywhere in the city. They've been hustling me and I know exactly what they're doing. Tomorrow, it stops. Get the FBI on the phone"

Jenkins nodded his head with a quick "Yes, sir" before he turned to find a phone.

~*0*~

On the day of the share holders meeting Jenkins and Dubenich were going through the outside meeting area straightening up some last minute things "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Jenkins asked.

Dubenich nodded confident "Yeah, they're pissed, I get that. They want to make me pay. I mean, an opportunity like this, the same week as the Shareholder's Meeting. The bug, the fake offices, cash bribes, Nigerians for god's sake! Nigerians! I mean, it's like those email scams with Nigerian bank fraud letters. Who the hell do they think I am? Some dog they can just lead around? They're going to find out exactly how wrong they are"

~*0*~

The team grabbed the equipment they need and some packs of clothes, they put it all into a couple of bags before, and together they head for the door.

~*0*~

The Head Engineer Jenkins was in the middle of presenting the stolen project to the Shareholders "It is more than just nuts, bolts and scrap metal"

~*0*~

Sophie met the group of Nigerian officials as they exited the car at the meeting and shook hands before they headed for the patio to mingle with the share holders.

~*0*~

Dubenich was busy speaking to one of his share holders called Tom Bailey, so he didn't see the Nigerians had arrived "All I know is, good day for you" said the share holder saluting Dubenich with his glass of champagne.

Dubenich took a sip of his champagne before speaking "It's a good day for all of us. Stock's gone up 15 points since the announcement"

"Really?" Bailey questioned curious.

"You didn't know?" Dubenich bragged slightly.

"No. I'll pass it around" the man smirked before he turned and walked away to mingle.

Sophie approached Dubenich making the man turn around slightly startled "Well, aren't you the cat that ate the canary?" she smiled.

"Does it show?" Dubenich ducked his head slightly.

Sophie smirked to herself "Horrible poker-face"

Dubenich shrugged "Guilty" he looked over her shoulder and spotted the Nigerian Officials "Why don't we get this done?" he nodded at them.

Sophie acted surprised "Now?"

Dubenich nodded "Yeah"

Sophie questioned "You have the whole payment?"

"Absolutely" Dubenich nodded "I think we should make the deal. I want to make the announcement, get even bigger headlines. I'll take them into a conference room away from all this. Go, go, go, let's do it" he said shooing Sophie over to the Nigerians.

Sophie simply shrugged "I'll be right back" before she walked over to the Nigerians and talk to them quietly as Dubenich watched her closely.

~*0*~

Dubenich led Sophie and the Nigerian officials inside to an office upstairs in the building. The sound of the party could still be heard slightly from below.

Dubenich gestured for everyone to settle down round the table "Gentlemen, now everybody come in, relax, make yourselves comfortable"

"Thank you" Babatunde nodded as he took a seat.

Dubenich smiled as he continued to direct people to seats "Sure" not noticing as he turned to sit down himself that Sophie had remained in the doorway.

Babatunde cleared his throat and started the meeting "I assume we all understand the terms of this agreement"

Dubenich smirked and said "Well I'll tell you, the exact terms of the agreement, are these" before he pressed a button on the phone and several men in FBI coats appear and enter the room.

The first man that walked in announced "FBI, don't move"

"You all right, sir?" another of the FBI agents asked the Nigerian Officials.

"Oh, I'm fine" Dubenich waved it off as he closed his eyes, basking in the feel of his success.

"Yes, of course" Babatunde nodded at the agent.

Dubenich continued "I'm fine, thanks for asking, everything's perfectly…" not seeming to hear much of what was going on around him until two of the FBI agents grabbed his arms. "What? What are you …? Wait a minute, wait a minute, let go of me, please" Dubenich asked confused as he pulled his arms free from the agents "What are you looking at me for, the criminals are sitting right over there, look at them. Listen, I spoke to Special Agent Higgins, if you call him on the phone"

"I'm Special Agent Higgins" the agent that spoke to the Nigerians announced holding out his badge to be seen "Victor Dubenich you are under arrest for soliciting a bribe from these Nigerian Government officials"

Dubenich started to stutter in shock "I'm not-I'm not soliciting-these aren't even Nigerians"

Babatunde held up his passport to prove that he was in fact a Nigerian Official "Of course we are"

"No. No, no" Dubenich stuttered completely thrown.

One of the other Nigerian officials spoke up "Your woman knew that when she contacted us last week"

"My… woman?" Dubenich asked before looking around the room for Sophie only to see she had already left "Anna? Anna? Anna!" he raises his arms in defense to Agent Higgins "Um, Special Agent Higgins, Anna Gunschtot works for them" he pointed to the Nigerians.

Babatunde scoffed "Ridiculous. She contacted us on your behalf"

The other official finished "She told us she worked directly under you now"

~*0*~

 _Flashback:_

 _Sophie shook hands with the Nigerian Officials as she guided them into the meeting room "Anna Gunschtot from Bering Aerospace, directly under Victor Dubenich"_

~*0*~

"But… b-but she took me. She took me to their office" Dubenich stuttered totally confused now.

"No, we do not have an office in this city" Babatunde stated.

Dubenich clicked his fingers "Exactly"

The other Nigerian official said "We met her at your other office"

~*0*~

 _Flashback:_

 _Eliot put up a sign at the side of the door that read "Bering consulting. Victor Dubenich" and disappeared into the stairwell as Sophie exited the room her hand out ready to welcome the Nigerian Officials. "Anna Gunschtot, from Bering Aerospace"_

~*0*~

Dubenich suddenly realized something with dread "The shareholders! The shareholders!" as he ran past all the agents and out to the party, he arrived just in time to see police cars with lights and sirens flashing pull up to building. Many FBI agents ran inside, mingling in with the guests at the party and rushing into the offices.

Tom Bailey, saw all this and had to ask "What in god's name" as they watched the FBI agents rush the building and surround them, making sure no one was able to leave.

Dubenich moved forward through the crowd shouted to all the guests "No, no, no. Uh, everybody, could I have your attention? It's just, it's just a permit problem" tried to save himself.

"Victor, what's going on?" Bailey asked.

Dubenich tried to placate Bailey "I can explain" not seeing the FBI agents exit the office and come up behind him.

"Anybody else here involved in the bribe?" Special Agent Higgins asked the crowd.

"Bribe?" Bailey repeated in shock.

"There's no bribe" Dubenich tried to redirect the attention away from the FBI.

Babatunde came out of the offices after the FBI and said to Higgins "I handed this man an envelope containing a cashier's check for $200,000"

Dubenich immediate declines, knowing he never got that check "No. No, no. Nobody. I wasn't handed any…"

~*0*~

 _Flashback:_

 _Babatunde sat at the desk in his hotel quickly signing off on a $200,000 check and placed it in a white envelope. He quickly put it in his pocket he exited the room with the other officials._

~*0*~

Dubenich remembered the envelope with the piece of paper stating $1,000,000, confusion filled him as he said "I didn't—nobody handed…"

~*0*~

 _Flashback:_

 _Sophie walked to the end of the table and took an envelope from the Babatunde. She quickly switched it with the identical envelope under her blazer before he handed the second envelope to Dubenich._

~*0*~

Higgins looked at Dubenich directly and asked "This will look a lot better for you if you did not deposit that check. Do you still have it?"

Dubenich flinched as he spoke "I didn't get a check"

One of the FBI Agents approached Higgins and said "Sir, we got people searching the lab, seizing the files and computers"

Higgins nodded "Good job" before he turned to join his fellow agents inside the offices.

Bailey saw a news van as it pulled up and tried to alert Victor "Victor, news crews. If they find out"

Dubenich waved him off before he chased after Higgins and grabbed his attention "Higgins! Higgins you can't do that! You can't take my computer"

Higgins smirked at the man "This Company has government defense contracts. There are very serious rules regarding contact with foreign nationals. The Patriot Act applies here my friend. Sir, I can take your underpants" he finished smugly.

Dubenich backed up holding his hands up defensively "Okay, it's getting a little aggressive. I'm sorry, Babatunde, this is Tom Bailey. These gentlemen are from Nigeria. Everybody just take it easy, relax, I'll be back and explain everything" before he turned and tried to run away before a couple of the other FBI agents grabbed him and led him back inside.

Bailey looked around the group of Nigerians completely confused before he shouted after Dubenich and the agents "Where are you going? Victor! Victor!"

~*0*~

Several men in one of the offices tried desperately to shred their documents as Jenkins stormed inside, closing the door behind him.

Jenkins looked around slightly panicked "Guys, we gotta get rid of this stuff. Keep shredding, keep shredding" he shouted as he grabbed a box of already shredded documents and started to pour it all out the window "Help me!" he called to the other workers some of who grabbed boxes ready to throw them out the window too.

~*0*~

Small pieces of paper floated down onto the crowd below like confetti over all the remaining shareholders, and as FBI agents moved in and out of the building. The entire team confidently walked out of the office wearing FBI coats and carrying boxes.

~*0*~

FBI agents entered the room where the men were shredding documents and shouted "Freeze!" with their guns raised as all of the men stop, throwing whatever was still in their hands to the floor and raised their hands in surrender.

~*0*~

Pierson waited by the window in the office building across the street from his main offices as Nate approached "I came alone" He said simply.

"Yes, I know, thank you Mr. Pierson" Nate nodded as he walked over to the man "Now I understand your research was completely wiped out. I have complete copies right on these hard drives along with absolute proof that they were on Bering Aerospace computers, that should be good for a couple of lawsuits, right?"

Pierson nodded taking the drives "I dropped the investigation of all parties involved with the original theft"

Nate nodded "That seems fair. You get your property back"

Pierson nodded as well before he straightened "Agreed. No charges. Nothing on you, or your people" As Nate turned to walk away "Don't you want money?" Pierson asked confused.

Nate continued to walk away "This particular project has a different revenue stream" he finished as he exited the room.

~*0*~

FBI Agents looked through files and took boxes away from Dubenich's offices while the man himself sat watching the news.

The reporter on TV "In a massive sell-off sparked by multiple federal investigations of Bering Aerospace the stock plummeted 33 percent before trading was halted"

Dubenich's phone rang and he sighed to himself debated with himself for a moment before ultimately deciding to answer "Yeah?"

Dubenich sat up straight as he heard the voice of Nathan Ford over the phone "Yeah, you should have just paid us"

Dubenich sat forward hoping to get some questions answered "I found the transmitter"

Nate scoffed "Oh, you found the transmitter with the blinking light, yeah; we wanted you to figure some of it out. Then we just gave you what you were expecting"

"I am Victor Dubenich, I am going to beat this" Dubenich said with determination.

The smile could be heard in his voice when Nate questioned "Aren't you forgetting about the bribe?"

Dubenich shrugged it off "Who cares? You can't prove anything, I didn't get any money" Just as an FBI Agent opened the safe behind Dubenich, he took out handfuls of cash bundles with a call of "Bingo!" making Dubenich turn around in surprise.

Nate explained briefly "No, it doesn't account for all of it. Sophie and Roxy kept a little to buy a truly impressive number of shoes"

~*0*~

"What is it with woman and shoes?" Parker asked in confusion.

Sophie looked at her like she was crazy "There's something wrong with you"

Eliot nodded adamantly "That's what I said"

Roxy rolled her eyes with exasperation at the other two before she explained to Parker "Everyone has a thing Parker yours is money and your rigs, and mine is shoes and computer stuff"

Parker grinned thankful that someone was willing to explain it to her "Oh, OK"

~*0*~

Nate explained exactly what happened "See if a company's stock price falls ten, fifteen percent in one day and you see it coming, you sell short, you make a lot of money. If it's going to fall thirty percent, you can make shattering amounts of money. We didn't need the FBI to show up and take you to jail; we just needed them to show up and take boxes out of your office, all day long in front of TV cameras, scaring your investors. You going to jail is just a bonus. I wouldn't say anything about us to the Feds. Next time we won't be so nice" he finished before he hung up and walked toward the others.

~*0*~

One of the FBI agents that were searching the room saw Dubenich hang up the phone and asked with suspicion "Who was that?"

Dubenich sighed butting his phone back on the table "Nobody"

~*0*~

Roxy handed out envelopes to each member. They opened them to find checks inside for $32,761,349.05. This made Sophie and Parker gasped out in surprise and Eliot to gape at the number in complete shock.

Nate joined the group taking the envelope he was handed "Job well..." as he opened the envelope and saw the number he stopped in shock as well "Whoa!"

Roxy explained for them "There was an overlap in the London stock market. Valuation carried over to NASDAQ and..." she trailed off seeing the blank looks she was receiving and rolled her eyes. She smirked and said "Let's just say I'm very good at what I do, Okay sweeties?"

Parker looked around at them all "This is the score. THE score"

Roxy smirked and said "I told you Hunny, Geeks rule the world"

Eliot threw an arm around her shoulder and kissed her temple cheering "Somebody kiss this woman before I do"

Roxy laughed before she said "So, you're out, huh? I mean you could be out; this is retirement money. This is go legit and buy an island money"

Nate shook his head to clear it before he said "Uh, yeah. Pleasure working with you"

Eliot nodded releasing Roxy while stifling a sigh "Yeah. One show only. No encores"

Parker looked disappointed but was trying not to let it show "I already forgot your names"

After a long look around, everyone headed in different directions. Nate walked down the path and is joined by Roxy on his left "You know Babe; I never had that fun a time on a job"

"Walk away" Nate demanded trying to ignore the girl that had become somewhat of a friend to him without him actually realizing it.

Roxy just continued pretending Nate hadn't even spoke "And I get bored easily I can't imagine stopping what I'm doing even if I have enough money to retire. I need the thrill of it! And you, you kept me focused, I get distracted babe"

Parker joined them on Nate's other side "I'm really good at one thing"

Nate tried to stop her "Parker"

Parker continued like he hadn't interrupted "…only one thing that's it, but you, you know other things and-and I can't stop doing my one thing, can't retire …" she trailed off trying to think what she would do with herself if she ever did decide to retire.

Eliot joins them just behind Roxy "You want to know what I think?"

Nate sighed, giving up trying to rid of them now "Not really"

Eliot like the others ignored Nate's words "How long until you fall apart again?"

Nate scoffed offended "Oh I'm touched"

Eliot shrugged "Well a guy like you can't be out of the game, that's why you were a wreck, you need the chase"

Nate started "Yeah, I'll manage" before being interrupted by his phone going off, he flipped it open and answered "Yeah" only to see Sophie sat on the bench in front of them with her phone to her ear.

Sophie stood up hung up her phone, stopped directly in front of Nate she said "You pick the jobs"

Nate interrupted before she could say anymore "My job is helping people. I help find bad guys"

Sophie doesn't seem to see any problem with that "Then go find some bad guys. Bad guys have money. Black King, White Knight" Sophie said as she looked up at him through her lashes.

Nate said nothing and just stares around the group of thieves for a long moment.

~*0*~

 _"People like that, corporations like that, they have all the money they have all the power and they use it to make people like you go away. Right now you're suffering under an enormous weight. We provide, Leverage"_

 **AN: Hope you liked the first episode and my character. I didn't bother doing the end bit other than leaving in the speech because we never get to see that job and I love that speech! Please read and review. I hope to get the next chapter out soon but I am not making any promises.**

 **Sarah x**


	2. AN

I know that I am absolutely terrible for doing this but I dont care cause I need a completely fresh start.

Nothing has been uploaded yet but my new stories and improved stories will be posted on my new account Dark Rose Tales


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